ORANGE – Nineteen minutes of daily congestion where the Garden Grove (22) Freeway meets the Santa Ana (5) and Orange (57) connectors could drop to five minutes with a $70 million-$110 million fix, according to a Caltrans briefing today at an Orange County Transportation Authority meeting.

Just a year after construction ended on a $550 million project to add a carpool lane along most of the Garden Grove Freeway, congestion at the so- called Orange Crush, where three freeway connectors converge remains a challenge for eastbound commuters at rush hour’s peak, said Joel Zlotnik of the OCTA.

The 19 average minutes of congestion is along the area from Magnolia Street through the crush. The Garden Grove Freeway continues on to the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.

Caltrans officials presented the board with four options, including one for $20 million that “will not do much to reduce the delay time,” Zlotnik said.

The best fix will reduced the congestion time to between zero and 5 minutes, Zlotnik said, but the agency does not have the money for it now, he said.

The project will be made part of the Central County Corridor Major Investment Study that addresses several issues in central Orange County. The study should be completed early next year.

Meanwhile, the next projects planned for the Garden Grove Freeway include completing carpool connector lanes where it merges into the San Diego and San Gabriel River (605) freeways.

The Garden Grove Freeway widening was not designed to address congestion at the Orange Crush, but to add carpool lanes in both east and west directions, Zlotnik said.

One change that was made in the area of the Orange Crush was a separation of traffic between vehicles heading east and and preparing to use the Santa Ana and Orange Freeway connectors, and traffic heading east on the Garden Grove Freeway to off-ramps beyond the connectors, Zlotnik said.

Overall, the Garden Grove Freeway widening project “was to add a carpool lane (one each way), not to address the crush.”